Dream 10-night July 2023 France/Iceland/Norway from Southampton to Copenhagen

[anricat]

Austin to Southampton - July 19/20, 2023

We are back to Europe for another adventure. As seems to be our lot in life lately, we figured out how to pivot and roll with the punches. I’m sure my trip reports would be quite dreary without a bit of drama! But we still had fun, of course. Traveling on this trip is Roger (my husband), Emmaline (our 15 year old) and me. For the first leg of the trip, we will be joined by my friend Dru and her husband Nils who live in Geneva. You may recall Dru from our 2018 European adventures. She was supposed to be with for our adventures in Europe in 2020 but, well, we know how that worked out. So I’m super excited that we were able to coordinate some time together for this year.

I wish I could say that our travel was uneventful, but it turned out to be quite the event. Our direct flight to Heathrow was scheduled to take off at 6:10 PM and it was slightly late departing (maybe 15 minutes) but we made up the time in the air. None of us slept very well on the flight and by the time we made it into Heathrow at 9:30 in the morning local time, we weren’t real cheery. Roger was even less cheery on account of a crazy huge yawn he had on the plane. He yawned so big that he felt something pop in his jaw and then was in agonizing pain after that. Passport control, bag claim and customs were super efficient and easy, but Roger was feeling worse and worse. We made our way to a cafe to sit down and have a sack and coffee. Roger decided to get up and go use the restroom and a couple minutes later a flight attendant was in the cafe area calling out “Summer? Summer?” Roger had felt dizzy and they helped had him onto the floor.

They called the airport paramedics and a young woman arrived shortly thereafter on a bicycle. She took all sorts of vitals and Roger was perfectly normal for everything. He said his stomach was really upset, maybe from the pain and the stress and not eating a ton and not sleeping. I travel with a pharmacy so I gave him some Zofran and Gabapentin to try to help with both nausea and pain. Eventually he was able to get up and get into a wheelchair which is basically where he stayed until we got him onto our coach to drive to Southampton. I just knew that if we could get him onto the bus and he could crash out, he’d feel better on waking. Which…fast forward, is exactly what happened. Our coach arrived pretty much on time at 12:20 PM and we arrived in Southampton around 2:20 PM or so.

In the midst of all this, Dru and Nils arrived and I pretty much teared up when I hugged Dru because it’s been 5 years since I’ve seen her and she’s basically like a sister to me and SOOOOOO much has happened in my life since 2018. (The pandemic, death of my dad, death of my mom, death of my step-mom, and breast cancer. In that order.) It was just so amazing and wonderful to hug her again.

Upon arriving at our hotel in Southampton we walked the 15 min walk from the coach station to our hotel and arrived around 2:40 but we had to hang out because check-in time was 3 PM at the Premier Inn Southampton Cumberland Place. After we were able to check in, we freshened up and made our way to the Sea City Museum which was right around the corner from the hotel. We were there for a little over an hour. The museum is primarily exhibits about the Titanic with lots of really interesting stories and items from the ship and Southampton at that time.





We left there at 5 PM and stopped into a grocery store to buy some bottled water as well as some local items that Emmaline wanted to try (Monster Munch and Cadbury dairy milk chocolate). She wasn’t so into the Monster Munch and we ended up tossing the rest of the bag. After that we passed by a couple of the Titanic memorials in the park near our hotel, as well as a war memorial. After that we went to dinner at a little pub about 10 minute walk from our hotel called Smugglers. We all enjoyed our meal but we were starting to fade. Well, our family was. Dru and Nils only had about an hour and fifteen minute flight from Geneva so they were doing fine.







We went back to the hotel and got everything ready for our tour the next day before we all fell into bed and crashed.

 

[anricat]

Stonehenge and Bath - July 21, 2023​

Breakfast wasn’t included at the hotel, but it was pretty cheap and seemed easiest so we just did that (breakfast for our family of three for two mornings worked out to 38 GBP, which seemed like a steal). Roger’s jaw was feeling a little better and unlike the previous day, he was able to eat more normally, but he still took some Tylenol. After breakfast we were picked up by our guide for the day, Jo from Undiscovered Cotswolds. She was right on time for our 8:30 AM pickup and we drove straightaway to Stonehenge, arriving a little before 10 AM. We started by going through the visitor’s center which was nice and informative before boarding a shuttle bus to take us out to the stones. I had heard you couldn’t get close to the stones, but honestly, I was not at all unhappy about our distance from them in the slightest. Some people may feel that they are just big rocks stacked, but I really enjoyed seeing them.




We left Stonehenge around 11:15 and drove to Bath. Once in Bath, Jo took us past the Royal Crescent and gave us a little more information about Bath, which was really a cool looking city. She then led us to a great pub called The Raven where we had some pies for lunch that were absolutely amazing. After we were stuffed, she led us over to the Roman baths and set us loose. I have to say that the Roman baths were actually a little underwhelming. Maybe after seeing Roman ruins in, well, Rome, anything else is just a little less exciting. But it was still pretty cool to see how it was all laid out and especially how they had the little stacks of rocks that the floor would have rested on to make a heated floor.






We finished at the baths and grabbed a coffee and did some quick shopping, where Emmaline discovered the joy of Primark, and it quickly became her new favorite shop. She bought several things and would have gladly spent more time shopping. But at 4 PM it was time to meet back up with Jo for the drive back which was about 2 hours. We arrived back to our hotel, freshened up and went shopping! Roger went to a wine shop and Emmaline, Dru and I went to the Primark in Southampton. (Nils stayed behind at the hotel.) We all left Primark with lighter wallets and met up at Nando’s for dinner (on the way to which a large group of naked people passed us on bicycles - no joke). After dinner, we went to a gelato shop, which was good but took entirely too long to get gelato. We returned to the room and did a little repacking to prepare for embarkation the next day.

 

[anricat]

Embarkation - July 22, 2023​

Dru and I had arranged to work out together in the park first thing in the morning so we met in the lobby at 7:10 AM for a 7:15 workout. I led Dru through a workout and we had a lot of fun before meeting everyone else for breakfast at 8:30 AM. After breakfast we returned to the room, got cleaned up and packed. At around 10:00 AM we went for a walk. We walked down to the original Southampton town walls and to Bargate, the original gate into the town which also served as a government building and prison built c. 1180.





We did a little shopping (Emmaline packed a tube of mascara that ended up being empty) and then grabbed some coffee (Emmaline wanted British Starbucks) before going back to the hotel. By this point it had started to rain, not heavily, but it was somewhat steady. We checked out of the hotel and tried to get an Uber, which didn’t work. It seemed that there weren’t many XL cars available, so Nils called two taxis for us, which worked fine. We said goodbye to Dru and Nils and got to the port at 12:30, which worked out well since our port arrival time was 12:15-12:30.

By 12:45 we were done with checkin and security and they were boarding groups 1-10 (we had group 12). To pass the time we used the restrooms and took a photo in which Emmaline was being a typical teenager, Roger was carrying all the bags and looking unenthused and I was overenthusiastic. The helpful lady taking the photo for us kept counting down “3, 2, 1!” as if prompting Emmaline to look up. I told her that was the joke! At 1:00 PM they called group 12 and we got onboard and headed straight for Cabana’s to have lunch.


After lunch, it was time for our cruise group meet and greet in Pub 687 at 2:00 PM. I was there for an hour (Roger left earlier and so did Emmaline) but Roger and I regrouped later and went for ice cream on the pool deck. We checked the room for luggage but it still wasn’t there. At 4:00 PM it was time for the muster drill which was, thankfully, in the Buena Vista Theatre because the weather was still rainy, windy, and cool. Roger and I went back to the room after muster to see if we had luggage (we didn’t) and Emmaline went off to meet her friends in Vibe (the teen club).

It seemed like we left port really late, finally starting to pull away from the dock at 5:45. We still didn’t have our luggage and the AirTags I had placed inside hadn’t pinged since 3:00 and at that time, one of them was still on the dock so I was getting nervous. Plus, I wanted to unpack! The stateroom host asked if we had our bags yet and we didn’t so she asked us what they looked like and said she would go down to try to find them.

At this time I heard a whistling coming from the verandah door and I opened and closed it and tried to figure out why it seemed there wasn’t a seal. It turned out that the handle was loose and air was whistling through it and it was really annoying. I managed to jiggle and position it just-so and it wasn’t too bad, but I called guest services to report it and I asked that they come the following day tor repair it, but not that day as we would be going to be early. I told them we would be gone by 7:30 AM and they would have all day to look at it.

At 6:00 PM it was time for dinner in Enchanted Garden. We had requested a server so we went down and I saw her in the hallway and I said “we request you! We are at table 10.” She replied that table 10 was not in her section. So we went to the host stand and they had no record of our request. Our wonderful travel agent was NOT amused.

That said, our serving team was great and we had a great meal that was super fast and moved along really well. We don’t have any table mates, which we were surprised about. It’s okay because sometimes it’s a little hit or miss with the table mates. We went back to the room after dinner and we had luggage! Our lovely stateroom host had put them into our room for us. Phew! We got everything unpacked and ready for our excursion the next day. We were totally exhausted and we were losing an hour to the time change so we went to bed super early at around 9:15 (which was actually 10:15 with the time change).

At 9:30 I heard knocking. I was already half asleep and very confused. I heard it again. I told Roger I thought someone was knocking. Just as I got up to go see, the stateroom door opened! It was a man there to fix the door! I explained that we got it adjusted somewhat and could they return the next day.

I was worried I would have trouble going back to sleep after my 15 minute power nap, but I was so tired, I had no issues at all. We were warned that the seas would be rough with 8-9 foot swells. Everyone took a Bonine just in case. If we had big swells, I didn’t notice and slept quite well.

 

[anricat]

Cherbourg - July 23, 2023​

We arrived in Cherbourg for our first port of the cruise and I had arranged a private tour with Brigitte from Unforgettable Normandy for a D-Day tour. Some months back, I found two other families with whom to share the tour on our Facebook group so all together we were 8: our family of three, another family of three (16 year old son) and one couple (empty nesters). We all met in the atrium at 7:35 AM to meet with Brigitte at 7:45 AM. The terminal building in Cherbourg is actually really beautiful. Fun fact: Titanic also called here after leaving Southampton. We hopped into Brigitte’s van and off we went into the rainy, overcast morning. Apparently this weather is pretty much par for the course in Normandy and the drizzle would continue all day long. We were prepared with our rain gear.


Our first stop after a little over an hour drive was Omaha Beach. One thing I really loved about our tour that day was that at each stop, Brigitte had a big book with maps of each place and gave us a rundown of how everything happened and the way that the events unfolded. She gave us a lot of very detailed history about D-Day that I was unfamiliar with. I only really knew the basics that we learned in history class and also what was in Saving Private Ryan (which she did reference a couple of times so now I feel like I need a rewatch).

We had a little time on our own at Omaha Beach to walk around and take photos. I was struck by just how wide the beach was from the water up to the cliffs. The tide was out, as it had been on that day. And in fact, on that day, it would have been out even further so the beach would have been longer (to the advantage of the Germans).


We left Omaha after about 30 minutes and drove about 20 minutes to the American Cemetery. The land is actually American soil and only soldiers who died in Normandy were eligible to be buried there. The government gave families the choice of burial there or back home and I’m surprised by the number who chose Normandy. It’s a beautiful and peaceful place overlooking the ocean and is well-kept by the US government. We paid our respects and reflected on the sacrificed made by these young men.




We left the cemetery after about 45 minutes and went to Pointe du Hoc where the Army Rangers scaled the cliff face with ladders and grappling hooks. There are large craters in the ground where the US tried (unsuccessfully) to take out the large guns with a bombing run. We were also able to go into some of the German bunkers that had been dug and built into the ground there (by French who were forced into the work). Throughout the tour, I got a real sense of gratitude from Brigitte on behalf of the French people for the efforts of the American, English and Canadian forces on that day.



We left there and drove about an hour away to Saint mère Église which is the first town to be liberated by the allied troops. Again, she gave us a lot of very specific historic information about the way the paratroopers came into the region that night, the places they landed, their objectives and then how it actually played out. We went into the church upon which a soldier got hung up on the steeple with his parachute. They now have a dummy soldier hanging there to show what it looked like (except it’s hanging on the wrong side). We went into the church and she showed us the specially designed stained glass windows that show the paratroopers coming in to liberate the town.





After that she set us free for an hour in the town for lunch and shopping. We had our French lunch in a small local café, which I affectionately call “bread with crap on top” which we also enjoyed in Nice when we were there in 2018. I absolutely love bread with crap on top and this cafe had very good bread with crap on top. We were all happy. We did a little shopping and then went back to the van for the 45 minute drive back to the ship.


Once back at the port, Roger went off into Cherbourg to quickly buy a couple of bottles of wine and Emmaline and I went back to the ship. She immediately went to meet up with her friends in Vibe while I started some laundry. Roger got back to the ship and we ordered some room service for a snack and we continued with the laundry shenanigans. I say shenanigans and that sounds fun, but it was not. Dryers weren’t available and when they were, they weren’t working right and it took me four cycles to get the clothes dry. I was traversing multiple decks looking for open machines. It was just a huge mess. Laundry would continue to be a massive headache nearly every time we did it, which was frequently because we didn’t want to go crazy packing for this trip (in fact, Dru marveled at our packing skills when she saw our luggages that first day).

At 6 PM we had dinner, this time in Royal Palace. Originally this evening was slated to be formal night and indeed on each and every cruise we’ve done, formal night is the second night. But they changed it to night three and for that I think everyone was grateful. It was such a long port day for many, and an early port day (made earlier with the time zone change).

After dinner I dealt with the laundry some more. In fact, I was still mucking about with it during dinner and had to get up between courses to check on it. After dinner it was FINALLY done and we were able to fold it and put it away. Except Emmaline. She went and had fun in Vibe. How nice for her!

The show that evening was a juggler we had never seen before (in fact, all the variety performers on this cruise were entirely new for us, which was nice, because we have had some repeats before). Pete Matthews did some comedy and juggling and while his juggling wasn’t as technically impressive as some others we’ve seen, he made up for it with some good comedy. After that, we were tired and went to bed.

 

[anricat]

At Sea - July 24, 2023​

I woke up at 7 AM to do laundry. Again. (Spoiler alert: there’s even more laundry ahead.) Things went a little better this time. Sort of. Ultimately we were doing laundry off and on between 7 and 10 AM. Yay. But between that we all went and ran a 5k. A lady on our FB cruise meet group had organized an unofficial 5k on Deck 4 and had medals made and everything (we paid her 10 Euros for each medal and they were really cute). We all ran separately (Emmaline ran with one of her friends) and then had some breakfast after that.


We regrouped at the room, showered, finished the aforementioned laundry and then went to lunch in Royal Palace which featured a rare sighting of Emmaline. Then all three of us went to see Elemental in the Buena Vista Theatre and it was absolutely packed. But the movie was really cute and we all enjoyed it.

Roger and I went after that to get coffee from Cove and Emmaline returned back to Vibe with her friends and we didn’t see her again until just before dinner. After our coffee we picked up a photo scavenger hunt sheet from Guest Services. We had done this activity last year on our 9-Night Southern Caribbean on the Fantasy. We’ve never done it on a shorter cruise so I think it’s reserved for the longer cruises. Today’s theme was uniforms. We did nearly all of them without even having to go look at the crew uniforms.

After that we went back to the room and I wrote up a bit of trip report before we got ready for formal night. Emmaline joined us and got dressed up as well and then we all went and took some family photos together before dinner. Dinner was in Animator’s Palate and it was the Crush show evening. It’s not our favorite, but it didn’t seem quite as annoying as the previous time. Maybe after the crazy dining antics on the Wish everything else seems sort of tame by comparison.



We did a little shopping after dinner (Emmaline went to Vibe of course) before retiring back to the room where we watched Maleficent on the stateroom on demand before turning in early. Even though we gained an hour due to changing time zones and would be gaining one more, we were still tired. Emmaline, on the other hand, stayed out late with her friends and they managed to stumble upon a rehearsal of a brand new deck party/show thing they were working on to premiere on our cruise. She told us (at 1 AM) that it was super fun. Awesome. “Let’s talk about it in the morning, okay?”

 

[anricat]

At Sea - July 25, 2023​

It’s another day at sea. And this time without laundry (don’t worry, more laundry is coming). Which is good because the day was jam-packed with activities we wanted to do. I woke up at 6:30 and headed to the gym. I found a tiny little piece of real estate and I did a BODYCOMBAT. I had already started learning the chorey for the next release I would be teaching and I knew it somewhat and so I put on the masterclass and listened, but didn’t watch (there really wasn’t any way to watch anyway). I’m sure people thought I was a weirdo punching and kicking in a little corner. It wouldn't be the last time I'd eke out a little corner to punch nothing for an hour.

After that I went back to the room and showered and put on my pajamas. Yes, my pajamas. It was time for our FB cruise meet group pajama breakfast. We all descended on Royal Palace at 8 AM decked out in our jammies for breakfast. It was a lot of fun and some families went all out in matching PJs. Emmaline ate breakfast with her friends and we ended up eating breakfast with the parents of one of her new friends.


After breakfast we all changed into regular clothes and Emmaline disappeared to Vibe. Roger and I started working the day’s photo scavenger hunt: carpets. Then at 11 AM it was time for our special Gold, Platinum and Pearl behind the scenes of Beauty and the Beast in the Walt Disney Theatre. We got to view a scene from the show with all the house lights up hearing all the communications of the stage crew. We were able to have the experience on the Fantasy on the 9-night last year. It’s something special they do only on the longer cruises. This time, though, we got to see the camera feeds from under the stage that they use for the lifts that come up onto the stage. It was super cool.

After that we had lunch out on the pool deck. It wasn’t exactly warm but we weren’t out there long. After lunch Roger and I went to the Mickey 200 while Emmaline was in Vibe having a Q&A session with some members of the cast of the shows from the Walt Disney Theatre. She said it was really cool and now had the Disney casting website bookmarked for future use.

Roger was excited for the return of the Mickey 200 in which we could build race cars out of root vegetables and let them plummet down a ramp (often with hilariously disastrous results for the vehicles). Our team (“The Evil Speed Queens”) did not win the day but we had a lot of fun watching vegetable cars crash and see pieces of produce fly everywhere.




After that Roger and I went to an adult only talk by two members of the DCL creative team. There were some interesting moments and tidbits, but large portions of it was more “and then I designed this show and then I designed this show.” I mean, these were clearly really creative people but I felt like I wanted just a little more from it. At the end of the panel when everyone stood up I noticed my favorite DCL crew member was in the audience. It was Darrell! We met him on the Magic in 2015 and have always enjoyed talking to him on our cruises through the years. He’s currently on a break from the Wish and on vacation with his spouse who works here on the Dream.


I dragged him along to dance class in Evolution and we talked Zelda along the way. That’s how we met: Roger, Emmaline and I were dressed as characters from the Legend of Zelda on our Halloween cruise and Darrell is a huge fan. Emmaline also came to dance class (Roger wandered off to take a walkabout) and we all learned a piece of “You Got a Friend In Me” from The Golden Mickeys show from the dance coordinator onboard. I did not learn it very quickly, partly because there were a lot of people, not much room and it was hard to see. But we still had a lot of fun. After that we went our separate ways and Roger and I had some coffee before making our way back to the room where we spotted some dolphins. We didn’t see much other than some fins, but Emmaline later told us she saw them leaping out of the water.


Then we relaxed and I made some notes for my trip reports and started working on writing up some of the previous ones. I also did a little work learning my BODYCOMBAT choreography since I’ll need to be ready to teach it when I get back home. At 4:30 it was time for a drawing class, which I was happy to find was something I’d never drawn before: a little toy story alien toy (“the claaaaaaaaaaw”). I think my little guy came out pretty well. Roger sat there for a few minutes and then wandered off. I caught up to him at mini golf when I was done with my drawing. (I went back through and picked up the holes I had missed.) We tied. After mini golf we grabbed a bowl of fruit for a snack then returned the room and relaxed and watched cartoons on the tv until it was time for dinner.

For dinner we were in Enchanted Garden and since we were past the main three rotational menus, we started getting some “regional inspiration” items on the menus, which we haven’t seen since Alaska and really enjoy. After dinner we went to “Songbook at Sea” with Steven Weller. He’s performed all around the world in various shows and is currently performing the role of Maurice in Beauty and the Beast onboard. He did a variety of pieces, some were more successful than others but it was entertaining.

After that was the main stage show with Greta Salome. She is a singer and violin player and represented Iceland in Eurovision twice, apparently. I didn’t really know what to expect but her show was absolutely wonderful and we all really enjoyed it. I highly recommend looking her up. She was also involved in some of the music for Eurovision: The Story of Fire Saga, which is really fun if you haven’t seen it.

After that we returned to the room and puttered about, getting things ready for the next day’s adventures, until it was time for the new Colorspin Dance Party. I don’t know what to say about this party. I was pretty excited after the lady hyped it up at the talk earlier in the day but I thought it was a little boring, to be honest. The pirate party is more fun. Even without fireworks. Maybe it plays better at night in the dark? But at 10:15 in Iceland, it’s not even remotely close to dark. The colorful track suits were cute, though. And Mickey had on an awesome little outfit.




We were tired so back to the room and into bed we went, ready to have fun in Iceland the next day.

 

[Elandon]

Loving your trip report so far! We are hopping on the dream in Copenhagen next week for the return repositioning back to Southampton and this is totally hyping me up!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

We love Darrell!!!

 

[anricat]

Reykjavik - July 26, 2023​

About a month before we were supposed to set sail someone posted in our FB cruise meet group that there was an issue with the dock at Isafjordur (our second stop in Iceland). They were dredging the harbor to create a new dock that could accommodate larger ships, like the Disney Dream. But apparently it wasn’t ready and a lot of ships were having to cancel that stop. Some of the smaller ships were able to use tenders.

We kept waiting to hear what would happen and we were hopeful, but then, with less than a week before we were set to leave, we got an email from DCL that the port was cancelled and unfortunately, they were unable to secure an alternative port for us. We were really unhappy about it. The cruise already had more sea days than we really wanted and now we were getting another.

I was scrambling to figure out how to get the horseback riding that Emmaline really wanted to do tacked onto another port day. Ultimately, we decided we had the most time in Reykjavik and we would add it onto that day. So prior to leaving I was emailing back and forth with a horseback riding company about how to get an evening ride with them. I was literally emailing back and forth with them up until that morning when we arrived in Reykjavik and we finally got it all ironed out that morning. It would be a marathon day in Iceland.

We woke up, had breakfast and disembarked the ship a little before 9 AM. There were a ton of people in the atrium waiting to get off and it was very chaotic. We got off and then tried to get a taxi. Everyone was trying to get a taxi and there weren’t many of them. We kept waiting and waiting and there was no clear taxi line and was just sort of a free for all. Finally we got a taxi and made our way to the car rental company. Along the way Roger asked the driver if he had any tips for driving in Iceland. He said “not really. Just don’t be like Biden.” I said, “I’m worry, what?” He said, “don’t be stupid. Biden is stupid. Don’t be like him.” There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence and Roger said, “well, we’re pretty smart. I think we’ll be okay.” Very odd.

We arrived at the car rental company and got our car and were on the road by about 9:30 AM. I hadn’t driven a stick shift in years but it was cheaper (and car rental is crazy expensive in Iceland) so I had to get reacquainted. Our first stop after about an hour of driving was Kerið Crater. This crater was formed when a volcano caved in on itself. We would see several other examples of this in our time in Iceland. Pretty much everything in Iceland was formed by some kind of volcanic activity.



We left Kerið (after having to Google how to get the car in reverse because this car had 6 gears and I had never had a 6 gear manual before and reverse was in a weird spot) and decided to go ahead and go to lunch. Even though it was early, we decided it would be a good move since dinner would be super early and we could potentially beat any rush. It was a good call. We arrived at the Efstidalur Ice Cream Barn at 11:20 and had to wait for ten minutes for lunch service to begin. We ate a lunch sourced from local ingredients, including some ice cream made from the dairy cows right there at the farm.

After lunch we went to the Geysir which blows about every few minutes and we were able to see it several times. There was a splash zone that some people were entirely unaware of and it was sort of funny to hear the people squeal as they realized the geyser was going to drench them. We got got back on the road for the short drive from there to the Gullfoss waterfall, which was very impressive. We were able to walk to different places along the pathway to see if from different angles.





From Gulfoss we had about an hour drive to Þingvellir (anglicized as Thingvellir) National Park. At this park you can walk between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. We walked around the park for awhile and marveled at the otherworldly scenery. Apparently some portions of Game of Thrones were filmed in the area. (We would see another location used in the show on our second day in Iceland as well.)





We left there and returned back to Reykjavik and on the way we had a very early dinner at a pizza place Roger had found near our route into town (that had parking, which is very important). We returned the rental car around 5:30 and had about an hour to kill before we were going to be picked up for our horseback riding tour. We walked a short distance to an ice cream and chocolate shop called OmNom (not kidding) and Emmaline and I had ice creams. Mine was…weird. I chose one with licorice topping and it was a little too much for my liking.


Then we walked back and were picked up by the horseback riding people. They made two more stops to pick up other guests before we went to their stables about 15 minutes outside of town. We got sorted out onto our horses and went out for about an hour and a half ride. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and it was a very peaceful ride. We mostly just walked along, but at times would trot a little. Though Roger said that it wasn’t quite a true trot and another lady mentioned that Icelandic horses have different gaits/speeds that other horses don’t.

As we rode, I was at the very back and I got a little sad. One of actually several times I felt that way. My mom was really into horses and actually had some before I was born. I only went riding with her once, though, as we didn’t really have much opportunity to ride. But there was something about being in that quiet peacefulness, swaying on the back of the horse that I just felt her presence with me and it was at once comforting and also sad.

We rode through some different landscapes including some beautiful meadows, more forest-type areas (not truly because they don’t really have much in the way of trees in Iceland) and then through some volcanic rock areas. It was so beautiful. Emmaline loved it and was laughing and saying "this is awesome!"



We got back a little after 9 PM and they got us back to the ship around 9:30 PM (all aboard was 10 PM). At 10:20 PM, we pulled away from the dock and sailed out to see while we admired an incredibly beautiful sunset.

 

[anricat]

Loving your trip report so far! We are hopping on the dream in Copenhagen next week for the return repositioning back to Southampton and this is totally hyping me up!

Oh wonderful! I hope I can have the Copenhagen sections up before you leave. Are you staying Copenhagen at all? My trip report will have three days of Copenhagen sightseeing as well. My top tip for Copenhagen is the Copenhagen Card. So many attractions and public transit included. It's been such a great deal!

 

[Elandon]

Oh wonderful! I hope I can have the Copenhagen sections up before you leave. Are you staying Copenhagen at all? My trip report will have three days of Copenhagen sightseeing as well. My top tip for Copenhagen is the Copenhagen Card. So many attractions and public transit included. It's been such a great deal!

We will be in Copenhagen for a day and a half before we board the cruise. We arrive at 8:30 am on monday and board the Dream at 1PM (ish) on Tuesday. We are probably going to be tired but I”m definitely looking for good ideas to do that day!

 

[anricat]

We will be in Copenhagen for a day and a half before we board the cruise. We arrive at 8:30 am on monday and board the Dream at 1PM (ish) on Tuesday. We are probably going to be tired but I”m definitely looking for good ideas to do that day!

Oh, it's going to be tough to narrow down my favorites to recommend. There are so many great things in Copenhagen. Hopefully I can get my report all done in the next couple of days. What are the ages and interests of the people in your travel party?

 

[anricat]

At Sea - July 27, 2023​

As I mentioned previously, we first learned this port day was changed to a sea day, we were all really disappointed, upset, and angry. Pretty sure I went through all the stages of grief. Yes, I know there are bigger problems in the world (I should know with all the personal tragedy in my life over the last couple of years) but we were still disappointed.

It’s funny to look back on it and we all really felt like things worked out really well. We got the horseback riding in and while it made for a long day, the terrain we were in was way cooler than the terrain we were originally going to be riding in Isafjordur. I’ve written before that I don’t really subscribe to an “everything happens for a reason” worldview and I prefer Amy Mann’s “we look back and make the reason” but I think in this case things worked out just fine.

Onward! My day started at 7 AM and notes for this morning are as follows:

1. laundry
2. light breakfast
3. laundry
4. work out (BODYCOMBAT practice)
5. laundry
6. work out (strength training)
7. laundry
8. second breakfast

Sorry, I don't have a scenic view of the laundry room to post. We were back in the room at 10 AM for a shower (me), a rest (Roger) and off to Vibe (Emmaline). After that we worked on the photo scavenger hunt for the day before it was time for a little lunch (just Roger and me; Emmaline was off with her Vibe friends) and then Roger and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie in the Walt Disney Theatre. The movie was fun and very big with the nostalgia factor (bugs! snakes (sort of)! car chases! airplanes! Nazis!).

After the movie we were officially in the Arctic Circle, having passed into it at around 3 PM. Roger and I celebrated by having some coffee at either Cove or Vista. I can’t remember. Probably Vista because every time we tried to go to Cove it was absolutely bonkers crazy busy. This trip had a lot more adults and fewer young children than any cruise we’ve ever been on. After that we finished up the scavenger hunt and turned it in. Then we returned to the room and relaxed and I worked a bit on my trip report. (I don't think the photo below is the scavenger hunt from this day, but I don't think I took a photo of it on this particular day and this post is really lacking in photos so here's one of a different day as filler. You're welcome.)


At 6 PM it was time for dinner, back in Animator’s Palate which was not the animation show as I would have expected. Again, we had more regional inspirations on the menu, which was fun and most welcome. After dinner we returned to the room and relaxed and also got all our things organized for our port day the next day. (Here's another random photo. This was our towel animal that night.)


The show for the evening was Danny Buckler and he was a magician and comedian. His show was actually pretty good. Though, as someone on our cruise group pointed out, nobody really compares after Greta Salome. And it was true. The other acts just didn’t hold up well after seeing her. We still enjoyed this show well enough, though.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

At Sea - July 27, 2023​

As I mentioned previously, we first learned this port day was changed to a sea day, we were all really disappointed, upset, and angry. Pretty sure I went through all the stages of grief. Yes, I know there are bigger problems in the world (I should know with all the personal tragedy in my life over the last couple of years) but we were still disappointed.

It’s funny to look back on it and we all really felt like things worked out really well. We got the horseback riding in and while it made for a long day, the terrain we were in was way cooler than the terrain we were originally going to be riding in Isafjordur. I’ve written before that I don’t really subscribe to an “everything happens for a reason” worldview and I prefer Amy Mann’s “we look back and make the reason” but I think in this case things worked out just fine.

Onward! My day started at 7 AM and notes for this morning are as follows:

1. laundry
2. light breakfast
3. laundry
4. work out (BODYCOMBAT practice)
5. laundry
6. work out (strength training)
7. laundry
8. second breakfast

Sorry, I don't have a scenic view of the laundry room to post. We were back in the room at 10 AM for a shower (me), a rest (Roger) and off to Vibe (Emmaline). After that we worked on the photo scavenger hunt for the day before it was time for a little lunch (just Roger and me; Emmaline was off with her Vibe friends) and then Roger and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie in the Walt Disney Theatre. The movie was fun and very big with the nostalgia factor (bugs! snakes (sort of)! car chases! airplanes! Nazis!).

After the movie we were officially in the Arctic Circle, having passed into it at around 3 PM. Roger and I celebrated by having some coffee at either Cove or Vista. I can’t remember. Probably Vista because every time we tried to go to Cove it was absolutely bonkers crazy busy. This trip had a lot more adults and fewer young children than any cruise we’ve ever been on. After that we finished up the scavenger hunt and turned it in. Then we returned to the room and relaxed and I worked a bit on my trip report. (I don't think the photo below is the scavenger hunt from this day, but I don't think I took a photo of it on this particular day and this post is really lacking in photos so here's one of a different day as filler. You're welcome.)


At 6 PM it was time for dinner, back in Animator’s Palate which was not the animation show as I would have expected. Again, we had more regional inspirations on the menu, which was fun and most welcome. After dinner we returned to the room and relaxed and also got all our things organized for our port day the next day. (Here's another random photo. This was our towel animal that night.)


The show for the evening was Danny Buckler and he was a magician and comedian. His show was actually pretty good. Though, as someone on our cruise group pointed out, nobody really compares after Greta Salome. And it was true. The other acts just didn’t hold up well after seeing her. We still enjoyed this show well enough, though.

Lol everything happens for a reason. Maybe pre covid. I used to subscribe to Pangloss’ Best of all Possible Worlds philosophy. But since covid, no. It does sound like you got in two days of activities on the Reykjavik day though which is great.

 

[anricat]

Akureyri - July 28, 2023​

For Akureyri (ah-koo-ray-ree) we booked a small group tour through Saga, who provides a variety of single or multi-day excursions throughout Iceland. They had good ratings and I thought it might be nice to take in some more of the natural beauty of Iceland. I wasn’t exactly sure where we were going. I knew a lake and a waterfall were involved though. Sign me up! We had an 8:45 AM meeting time for a 9:00 tour. We waited until 9:15 and then the tour guide got word that the final family we were waiting for wasn’t coming. So it was us, Larry and Janee from our cruise meet group (they were also with us in Cherbourg), one other family and one single guy, who turned out to be a former crew member onboard who was done with his contract as an actor on the main stage theatre. He was a nice kid and we chatted with him throughout the day.

Anyway, on our drizzly and windy morning, we made a thirty minute drive to the first stop, which was Goðafoss, “waterfall of the gods.” It was stunning. It’s hard to compare waterfalls so I can’t tell you which one was better, Gulfoss (“golden waterfall”) or Goðafoss. Both were great. We drove about another thirty minutes while our guide told us not only information about the area (most of our stops were on and around Lake Mývatn - pronounced mee-vaht-n) but some fun myths and stories as well. He was a really cool guy and we really enjoyed his tales, it brought a lot to the day. The next stop was Skútustaðagígar, which is a series of hills and craters caused by something volcanic, but I don’t remember the specific details (I hope that’s not on the test). I think it’s similar to Kerið crater in which small volcanoes collapse in on themselves.










Our next stop of the morning was Dimmuborgir which is a crazy landscape that was created by, you guessed it, volcanic activity (the name means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses” in Icelandic, which is pretty cool, actually). Our guide challenged us to look for troll faces in the rock formations. Also at this location it was possible to have one foot in Europe and one foot in North America as this is where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet (just like in Reykjavik).






We left there and drove to a totally surreal landscape at Námafjall Hverir. Not only did it look completely other-worldly, but it was quite smelly from all the sulfur. The area is full of sulfur and was once a sulfur mine, but due to all the geothermal activity, there were bubbling pits of mud and fumaroles. Our guide told us that it was imperative to stick to the pathways as the water and boiling mud was literally scalding. He stayed in the van. We made our way back there pretty quickly as well!




We left there and went to our final stop, a strange little museum called Fuglasafn Sigurgeirs. It was a taxidermy bird museum with every species of bird that lives in Iceland in it. It was founded by the family of a little boy who died that loved birds. There was a small cafe there. I had an amazing mushroom soup, Emmaline had waffles and hot chocolate (which she declared to be the best hot chocolate she had ever had) and Roger had an espresso and a cinnamon roll. Then it was time to go back to the ship as we had an early all aboard time of 4 PM.


We arrived back around 3 PM (driving through town and their heart shaped stop lights, photo courtesy of someone in my FB cruise group because I didn't get one). We got back onboard and since it was our coldest, windiest, and wettest day onboard, Emmaline and her friends decided to go to the pool and to ride the AquaDuck. Roger and I declined to go and instead had some snacks while we watched an insanely huge line of people try to get back onboard (apparently it took upwards of 45 minutes to get through the line). This was the only port that meticulously checked both our ship card and photo ID and it caused massive backups and we ended up leaving quite late as a result.




This wasn’t the first nor the last of the growing pains for the Dream in Europe. Usually, Disney brings over the Magic, a much smaller ship. I don’t know if anyone was prepared for the mass of people that comes with the Dream. One of the other problems that we encountered was issues in Cabanas and other parts of the ship on the colder days, which was pretty much all of them. Normally the people are spread about the open areas of the ship and especially the pools. Even if they aren’t swimming, they are sunning and watching the Funnel Vision movies. But since everything was cold and drizzly much of the time, that wasn’t happening so indoor activities had the tendency to be busy and Cabanas was nearly impossible to find a table for breakfast and lunch due to people not being able to eat outside. We never experienced those issues on the Wonder in Alaska and the weather was similarly dreary. I don’t know why that is.

After our snack we returned the room where I made some notes for my trip report and then we started on the photo scavenger hunt for the day before I went off for the second of four drawing classes I would attend onboard. The day’s drawing was Minnie (which is basically, draw Mickey and add a bow and eyelashes) and while I was there Roger worked some more on our scavenger hunt (artwork and paintings). We all returned to the room and Roger and I sat on the verandah and watched the sail away down the fjord while Emmaline showered after returning cold and shivery from the pool deck.









Dinner for the night was in Enchanted Garden where we marveled at how quickly the trip was going as we were there for our final rotation which seemed crazy. We returned to the room after dinner. I don’t know what we did. Just hung out and relaxed. I probably worked on my trip report, Emmaline probably went to Vibe and Roger probably just relaxed.

The show for the evening was The Rollerboys. Some dudes that sing while rollerskating. It was a cool sounding concept. I thought it was a cappella (it wasn’t), I thought they might do tricks (they didn’t), I thought they might sing on key (sometimes they did, though not always). We left after 20 minutes. We really tried to hang in there, but it was really loud and basically like watching some random dudes do karaoke while on roller-skates to pop songs I didn’t need to year and we were just done.

We got ready for bed and Emmaline surprised us by returning to the room earlier than normal. She was tired. We all were so we went to bed around 10 PM.

 

[anricat]

At Sea - July 29, 2023​

Here we go again. Another round of laundry. Why, you may be wondering, did you do so much laundry? Well, we packed six days of clothes, but we need to stick to sort of a sea day schedule which meant we needed to do laundry on those days, plus the laundry machines just don’t hold much so we were either going to have to do multiple loads on one day or smaller loads every few days and we took the latter approach, mostly because it was just easier to do the load when our little bag was full, but also because we could really only get one machine at a time, even with me getting up at 7 AM to get it done. I usually had to go to multiple laundry rooms to find an open machine. About those growing pains on the Dream…

So I started the load, went and had a light snack, went back and moved the load to the dryer and went to the gym, at which point Roger took over. It was a system that ended up working well. I actually think this was our last load and I managed to do two that morning. I can’t believe I found two machines open! Yes, I did practice BODYCOMBAT again. The gym was also less busy. I think as the cruise progressed people were just more and more tired and sleeping in.

We decided to avoid the aforementioned crush of people in Cabana’s and have sit down breakfast at Royal Palace. It wasn’t busy at all and we had a nice breakfast. After that we worked on the scavenger hunt and Emmaline came along with us. Along the way she met Daisy and Donald who were meeting together, which is always fun. We returned to the room to regroup and relax before finding a spot in the atrium to enjoy Jack Jack’s Incredible Diaper Dash. We always love the diaper dash (people bring their crawling babies to race) and we were so happy to see it on the schedule as we hadn’t seen it since before Covid. Regrettably, only two babies were there for the race and only one of them felt like racing. The other just sat at the starting line and cried. Ah well.






We went and had lunch and then worked some more on the scavenger hunt before going to see a matinee performance of Beauty and the Beast (one of the three main live shows in the Walt Disney Theatre). We had planned to catch the matinee and then go see Haunted Mansion after dinner instead. It seems like a lot of people had the same idea because the place was packed. Luckily we had gotten there early and had good seats. We enjoyed the show a lot, despite seeing it the year before.

We went back to the room for a few minutes before it was time for the ice cream social, organized by yours truly. I participated in an ice cream toppings pot luck last year on the Fantasy and it was a runaway success so I decided to borrow the idea and organize one for our cruise. Everyone had a great time putting on all the toppings and meeting each other again.

After that I went to another drawing class. This time Pluto. I was pretty excited to for Pluto since I had never drawn him before. I think he came out pretty good! His mouth was maybe a little big/poofy. Ah well, just for fun, right? After drawing class I returned to the room and we regrouped before dinner, this time in Royal Palace. It was semi-formal night so we took a couple photos in the Atrium.

After dinner, we went early to the Buena Vista Theatre to watch The Haunted Mansion which had premiered onboard on Thursday night at midnight (nope) but they had lots of other showings. Still, it was jam packed. Being a big fan of the ride, I braced myself and was pleasantly surprised. It was a super fun movie. It had some thrills, some laughs, and some tears.

After that it was time for bed.

 

[Elandon]

Oh, it's going to be tough to narrow down my favorites to recommend. There are so many great things in Copenhagen. Hopefully I can get my report all done in the next couple of days. What are the ages and interests of the people in your travel party?

Ithink we will go to tinfoil gardens on Monday and just relax and get rid of our jet lag!

 

[anricat]

Ithink we will go to tinfoil gardens on Monday and just relax and get rid of our jet lag!

Sounds great! The canal boat tour is really nice too. Relaxing and beautiful if you need something chill.

 

[anricat]

Alesund - July 30, 2023​

We lost an hour. I forgot to mention we lost an hour the day before too. We had gained them going into Iceland and now they were gone again. There were so many time zone changes on this trip. We lost 6 hours from the US to the UK, then we lost another going to France. then going to Iceland we gained two hours and then back the other way going to Norway (they did both of those across two days which was nice). But because of all these time changes it was like a nonstop Daylight Saving Time changes and I spent a lot of trip feeling jet-lagged and off-kilter because of it.

So we slept in, but also tried to get up at a reasonable hour which was 8 AM. Emmaline did not find this reasonable and did a LOT of complaining. Finally we all went off for a very light breakfast before picking up the day’s scavenger hunt, which was slightly different. They supplied photos of flags and we had to identify which country had that flag and the name of a crew member from that country. It was harder than anticipated.

Then at 10 AM we had second breakfast since we would be on our excursion during lunch. Emmaline had lunch, which consisted of chicken tenders and fries from the pool deck. Roger and I had breakfast type foods from Cabanas. At 10:40 AM we debarked the ship and explored the town of Alesund and did a bit of shopping.

At 11:45 AM we checked in for our RIB wildlife tour. We all overdressed because the little suits that they gave us were WARM. We left all our warm stuff behind in their cubbies and got on the boat. I have really mixed feelings about this excursion. The good: the fjords in Norway are beautiful, it was a beautiful day and the RIB is really fun. The bad: I really wanted to see much of the wildlife (the reason we booked the tour) closer AND I really really wanted to see puffins and we kinda did, but there were maybe 4 of them and they looked like tiny little fluttering dots (see last photo). Though we did see a lot of sea birds on a cliff quite close. Close enough to smell them! (The photo below of a grey cliff face with white dots are all birds. And the white smears are...not birds.) Also the seats were freakishly uncomfortable. We were straddling them like saddles and they were hard as rocks. This is coming from an indoor cycling instructor who sits on hard seats for a living so you know I’m serious.










After our boat ride (about 2 hours) we went for coffee (hot chocolate for Emmaline) and snacks at a little shop then went back to the ship. Roger and I wanted to walk up the 418 steps to get to the Aisle Viewpoint (it’s actually a few more than that to get to the very top of the observation point, but whatever). Emmaline was not interested and decided to stay on the ship and hang out with her friends.


It took us about 10 minutes to get from the ship to the base of the steps and then about 10 minutes to climb all of them to the very top but we were rewarded with an amazing view. Then we walked back down (about 8 minutes down) and back to the ship. Once back onboard Roger and I grabbed a snack and then went back to the room where I made some notes and worked on my trip report and Roger showered.




Then we relaxed a bit until dinner which was in Royal Palace again. After dinner we went back to the room and enjoyed the view as we sailed out of the fjord. The show that evening was a ventriloquist. We’ve seen quite a few of these throughout the years and this guy was…not so great. He had some moments, but he kept making self-deprecating fat jokes and it really rubbed me the wrong way.

After the show, Roger and I went to bed and Emmaline went off to Vibe with her friends, but she didn’t stay out long and I heard her come back around 11. Then around midnight I heard her in the bathroom throwing up. Oh no. I thought, this is it, our luck has run out and after 13 cruises, one of us finally ended up with Noro. I gave her a couple of Pepto tablets (did I mention I basically travel with a pharmacy?) and got her back in bed, not knowing what the next morning would bring.

 

[anricat]

At Sea - July 31, 2023​

By now you know the drill: laundry, light breakfast, laundry, work out, back to the room and shower and finish up the laundry that Roger had tended while I was working out. I didn’t feel like going to Cabana’s and Emmaline was still sleeping after all this and I wanted to be there if she needed me so Roger brought me back a plate of food.

I was all done getting ready and having breakfast and Emmaline was still sleeping so I just let her. Finally around 10 AM she woke up. I called the health center to report her illness and they told me that we could bring her down but it would be $128 and they left it up to me. I told them I just wanted to report it since I know we were supposed to. They honestly didn’t seem to care. I considered getting out our Covid tests since Covid can often present as nausea and vomiting, but I decided to wait and see how she was doing.

I had brought her a banana from the fitness center, which she ate. Then she got herself dressed and said that she felt absolutely fine! We chalked it up to her eating the day before which consisted of two meals of chicken tenders and fries (breakfast and snack), hot chocolate (lunch) and whatever other assorted bits of junk food she ate. I was talking to the mom of one of her friends later in the trip who said that they call that “too much Christmas.” I think that sums it up. But it was a huge relief that she wasn’t ill and that she had basically just made poor choices the day before. And probably also had not been getting enough sleep. She was getting in late at night - sometimes midnight or 1 AM and then getting up and going going going all day. Too much fun. Too much Christmas.

She ran off to Vibe and Roger and I began to pack. I was bound and determined to not have a situation where we were trying to fling things into our suitcase between dinner and the show to have our suitcases out on time. We got a good bit of the packing done before it was time for our 11:30 brunch reservation at Palo. We enjoyed our two hour meal but I do miss the little buffet of items they used to have at brunch. And we feel like our brunch on the Wish maybe was slightly better. Though a couple of menu items were better on the Dream.

After Palo we went back to the room to change out of our nice clothes before doing a little bit of last shopping. Then we went back to the room and continued to organize and pack and I made some notes for my trip report. Then we went to Vista to get some coffee before we went to a presentation called “Making the Dream” which was about building the ship. It wasn’t as interesting as the Art of the Theme Show tour and I feel like we had already seen much of the information other places before, but it still had some interesting little bits in it. After that we returned to the room to regroup and then I went to drawing class.

When I got to drawing class there was an older gentleman making drawings. He would quickly draw a perfect character, flip the page and start again. Each drawing took him no more than a couple of minutes. Then class began and he was introduced as Don “Ducky” Williams. I knew who he was. He’s sort of Disney-famous as an illustrator. He has worked for Disney for ages and illustrates for a lot of their marketing material or any time you see characters in print or on a billboard or a bus or monorail, he probably drew the character. I mean, the guy even has his own wikipedia page. And this is the thing about the longer cruises: you get stuff that you never see on the shorter ones.


We began class and drew Lady from Lady and the Tramp. I felt really great about this drawing and had so much fun with him leading the class. What a treat. Afterwards many people went up to take photos or get autographs and I started taking people’s phones for them and taking their picture with him. Some people asked for drawings. Finally nearly everyone was gone and I was there and Lady was the last drawing. I asked if Lady was available and he said yes and ripped it off and gave it to me. I was so excited I got tears in my eyes. What a special thing. I ran back to the room excited and found a DCL bag and three keychains hanging from our Fish outside the room. There was a note that we had won the scavenger hunt from the day before. Wow! What a great last day on the ship!


I finished packing and went to Guest Services to settle up the bill before dinner. Our last night onboard was in Animator’s Palate and it was the Animation Magic show and menu. I have no idea why they did the menus in this order because it really made our last night a little bit hectic trying to say goodbyes to our serving team AND do the animation stuff which is already stressful for them. We finished our final tally for the birthday game and our server was the winner. Oh, the birthday game? Yes, I may have mentioned it previously. It started on our 9-night the year before. Emmaline started counting birthdays and somehow we all decided to guess how many total birthdays there would be in our rotation. There were a lot of them! We all under-guessed. This cruise, not so much. We all guessed over the amount of birthdays. But our server came closest and we gave her a chocolate bar as a prize.


Roger and I decided to skip the show that night (Believe) as we’ve seen it a number of times. I believe that Emmaline went. We finished packing and I worked on the survey and my trip report before relaxing in bed with a book. Roger went up to the top deck to watch the sunset and Emmaline went to final karaoke and goodbye in Vibe. She got in quite late and apparently there were many tears. She made a really great group of friends on this cruise and they were all sad to say goodbye. We were a little sad too. While I was happy to start the next leg of our travels, leaving the ship is always sad.